


sing to me (i am not doing well)

by interstellarbeams



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Aftermath of a Case, Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Disorder, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Partnership, Unrequited Love, mentions of suicide pacts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:02:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29070735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interstellarbeams/pseuds/interstellarbeams
Summary: Dani comforts Malcolm through an anxiety attack, but can’t let herself give in to her feelings for the profiler.
Relationships: Malcolm Bright & Dani Powell, Malcolm Bright/Dani Powell
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52





	sing to me (i am not doing well)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to K for the prompt! Still on a Brightwell kick, guess I’ll keep writing till I’m out of inspiration. 😁😂
> 
> prompt: **54\. “Sing to me, please.”**
> 
> Lyrics are from _When I Fall In Love_ by Nat King Cole.
> 
> Kudos and comments are appreciated! 💕

“Sing to me, _please_. I can’t— can’t take this.” Malcolm grabbed at the sides of his head, his face glistening from trailing tears. His lips trembled around the words and Dani’s heart dropped into her stomach. She hated seeing him like this. 

She didn’t think, she just moved until she was crouched down in front of him. She gently pried his hands away from his skin, the tension in his fingers easing as she clasped his hands in hers. 

“Bright...” Dani couldn’t form a full thought, she just knew that she couldn’t watch him fall apart right in front of her without trying to help in any way she could.

“What should I sing?” She asked, shifting so that she was kneeling in front of him on the cold tile of the bathroom floor. 

Dani didn’t expect him to answer. The anguish on his face was enough of a distraction and she wracked her brain for a song that she could even remember all the words to. Not that it mattered, she could sing _Kumbaya_ and he wouldn’t care, but she couldn’t carelessly start singing to him. Not just any song would do.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had really sung for anyone, her elementary school production of Annie notwithstanding. After her stint in high school choir, she had moved on to college and her criminal justice courses so her hobby had fallen to the wayside, just like her belief in the shining hope of humanity. 

She wasn’t even sure how Malcolm  
knew she could sing. He must have heard her humming under her breath like she sometimes did in the break room when she was having a good day and used his incredible deductive reasoning.

Dani’s father had been a big fan of rhythm and blues and she had grown up listening to some of the most iconic songs of the fifties and sixties. After her father’s passing she hadn’t been able to listen to them without getting choked up and misty-eyed over memories of all the good times they had had on road trips harmonizing to pass the time. 

Dani squeezed Bright’s fingers before letting go. She settled down next to him in front of the bathtub and leaned against the cool porcelain. She felt the trembling that had set up residence in his body, when her shoulder rested against his, as his anxiety ratcheted to new heights. 

Dani had experienced anxiety attacks before, but never one that lasted as long as Bright’s usually did and despite the pain of her past she didn’t have demons haunting her like he did. 

His harsh breaths echoed against the walls and rang in her ears, starting her heartbeat racing. She wanted to help, she wished she could calm him as easily as his normally steady gaze helped to calm her during tense situations. 

There was nothing for it. She had to sing, she couldn’t think of anything else.

Dani swallowed hard before she opened her mouth. The words started out haltingly as she tried to get over the slight nervousness but she didn’t have time to worry about self-consciousness, not when he needed her.

_When I fall in love it will be forever  
Or I'll never fall in love_

_In a restless world like this is  
Love is ended before it's begun_

She leaned forward, resting a hand against his neck and urging him to look back at her. His fingers had tightened into fists and she regretted the choice to let him go but she couldn’t be everything he needed, but she could be something. 

_And too many moonlight kisses  
Seem to cool in the warmth of the sun_

She bent her lips to his cheek, leaving a fleeting kiss before she pulled him into her arms. Lifting a hand to the back of his neck she rocked him as she would a child who had woken from a nightmare. 

His arms snuck around her, the strength of his grasp almost painful for her but Dani knew he needed comfort. Bright’s trembling continued for a while but his breathing slowed as she willed her own heartbeat to measure out so that he wouldn’t react to her own stress. 

_When I give my heart it will be completely  
Or I'll never give my heart_

“Shh, it’s okay.” She murmured between verses, smoothing a hand down his neck then back over his head. 

She inhaled for the next line, trying to ignore the firmness of his chest against hers as she continued to sing to him. 

_And the moment I can feel that, you feel that way too  
Is when I fall in love with you_

_God, Dani, could you have picked a more suggestive song_ , she thought. Her feelings for him weren’t what had brought her here tonight, is what she had told herself as she let herself into his apartment with the key he had given her for emergencies. She didn't know that he needed her but her own heart had encouraged her to see him again. 

Their most recent case had been a Romeo and Juliet-esque suicide pact and she hadn’t been able to get the sight of the young lovers — still, yet entertwined like vines — out of her mind.

The initial investigation had concluded that it was an unfortunate incident but one that the couple had chosen when their parents had decided to separate them. The clues had allowed for that conclusion until Malcolm had been consulted. 

In his expert opinion, the angle of the gunshot wound was too low for the girl to have turned the weapon on herself without bending her wrist in an impossibly painful and ineffective manner. And the boyfriend’s wound was in a completely different place… seemed to him that if they had planned it they would have inflicted their wounds in the same place whilst committing the pact. 

He deduced that the father of the young woman had killed her boyfriend and when his daughter resisted his interference and tried to stop him, he had killed her too.

Apparently, it had brought back too many bad memories of the time when Malcolm’s father had planned to kill him. It was the only reason that she could figure that Malcolm would experience such a painful reaction.

She had noticed the tightness around his eyes when she had asked him if he was okay as they had closed out the case and left for the evening. 

He had assured her he was fine, like he always did, but she hadn’t been fooled. So she followed him home, heart in her throat.

Malcolm’s arms around her loosened and she pulled back too so that she could look into his eyes. Shadows still resided in the depths of his fathomless eyes, the tears growing tacky on his face but the fear and anguish had faded. 

She couldn’t help the draw that she felt towards him as she lifted a hand to his jaw, brushing her thumb across the roughness of scruff on his chin.

His breath shuddered out and she felt the warmth of it against her skin causing an explosion of goosebumps across the length of her forearm then the tingling feeling set off down her spine.

The bathroom tile was cold and a frosty winter’s evening was settling in outside but all Dani felt was heat. She feared that his attack had left him defenseless and needy, and despite the sudden urge she had to feel the scrape of his facial hair against her own skin, she wouldn’t take advantage of the moment. Not now.

“Malcolm?” She gripped his chin with one hand, drawing his gaze back to hers. “You good?”

“Yeah. Yeah. I think I’m better now. Thanks for uh— singing to me. You’re voice it’s really,” He paused for a breath and she tensed against the continuing attraction she felt for him. “It’s really beautiful.”

“Thanks. I haven’t— I haven’t sung in a long time.”

Dani stared into his eyes for a few moments then pulled away, drawing her limbs away from him before she attempted to get lost in him. She couldn’t afford to take such a risk. Not when he was still so fragile. She couldn’t and she wouldn’t.

“I’ll see myself out.” She added, grabbing up her keys that she had dropped to the floor in the rush to get to him. 

Dani stopped at the doorway, one hand fisted around the other, watching as he propelled himself up with a hand to the tub rim. 

She was used to being a support system, to helping him and she felt a stab to her heart watching him do it alone. 

Shaking her head, she walked out into the hall then down the steps to the kitchen level. Dani heard his steps on the metal staircase, the heels of his dress shoes becoming louder the closer he got.

She grabbed the doorknob, willing it to steady her and firm her decision to go. She glanced backwards once to see his hands gripping the railing just as hard. She wouldn’t think about what that might mean — he probably felt weak after his epic anxiety attack, that’s all. He didn’t feel the same compunction she did — to throw herself at him and never let go, to never let anything come between them. But that kind of logic was for those lovestruck teenagers who thought nothing could keep them apart. 

Dani was entirely too practical for that, besides she was the one making the decision to go.

“Goodnight, Bright.”

“Goodnight, Dani.”


End file.
